Prompt: A detective finds a hidden underground technological race pulling all the strings
It was proving to be a very rough year for detective work, something especially discouraging because of the three rough years that preceded it. Mauritius Cook dealt with the lack of business by picking up a few hobbies. There was no money to facilitate the picking up process, so he chose free things like bird watching and sketching the ocean from the beach. Continue reading
Prompt: There’s a huge lizard-like creature in front of me with scales shining like black diamonds, its glimmering eyes staring fixedly. It seems to say something solemnly, but unfortunately I can’t hear anything.
I’ve always valued pets more than people. We’re living in an age where I don’t even have to explain that anymore. Everybody just knows how awful everybody else is. A violent person is a maniac, a rapist, a murderer, a thief, a gangster, a politician even… A violent animal is just a scared or hungry one. Continue reading
Prompt: A man discovers all his memories and desires are not his own, merely the amalgamation of a video game’s code. He must now decided what to do with himself.
“And what should be my reward, were I to take up this task?” the knight asked. He wore red and gold, and was thus under the command of Lord Sprice. He was supposed to help the villagers regardless of reward, but they had their own sets of arcane rules. Rumors swirled of shadowy texts kept not in bookcases, but in the shadows of such cases. Continue reading
Prompt: An old deaf Italian man spends all his time painting; they are his interpretations of sound.
There was no getting my father to leave. Visitors thought his paintings were his life. He refused to sell any of them or give them as gifts. He just let the house eat them, the same way it ate him alive. I mean the first part quite literally. The house had a terrible pest problem, and not just one species. It was like a diplomatic summit of everything you didn’t want to be diplomatic with. Continue reading
Prompt: A man stumbles into swampland; mist surrounds him.
It was four days into what most people would call a camping trip. Bryce only called it that when he was embarrassed, when the stranger at the checkout counter asked him why he was buying both ammunition and sidewalk chalk. He could just answer with ‘camping trip’ and a smile. They would assume he had children looking to draw on boulders. Continue reading
Prompt: a comical tale of a superhero dad who struggles to balance real life with his wife and daughter and his heroics.
Pretty soon I would be going to my daughter’s games. I don’t care what kind of games they are: soccer, baseball, mountain biking, chess… as long as she gives me something to go to. My wife insists she’ll be a gymnast because she’s now quite good at tumbling without bruising her forehead. Continue reading
Prompt: the story of a boy and his cyborg shark that has robot legs, missile launcher fins, and devastating eye lasers.
It was life’s second chance at the process and possibly its last. Evolution the first time around was wholly organic, a thing of generations and mutations. The second time there was a brain on hand that could actually think things through. Continue reading
